Chabad businessman Chaim Yaakov Liebovitz submitted a bid for the oil exploration license of the Med-Ashdod area off Israel’s southern coast.
Lebovitz, the controlling shareholder of the public biotechnology company Brainstorm, submitted his bid as the head of the ACC Group, which partners with a U.S. oil and gas exploration company in the Ivory Coast and gold mining in Burkina Faso.
ACC believes the Yam-3 drill site 16 km. west of the Palmahim coast has a commercial potential of up to 200 million barrels of oil, albeit at a relatively great depth (5,900 meters). Exploration is expected to cost $80 million-$100 million.
At least four other contenders have submitted bids for Med-Ashdod exploration: a partnership of Zerah Oil and Gaz Explorations and Ginko Oil Exploration; Ratio Oil Exploration; a partnership between Modi’in, Lapidot, and an unnamed foreign partner; and Isramco, which has bid alone for the license but included an option to introduce the Delek Group as a 25% partner.
Yesterday was the deadline for submitting license applications for gas and oil exploration all over Israel. They will be reviewed by the National Infrastructure Ministry and referred to the Crude Oil Council for a final decision. The council is to convene on February 8.
The council’s decision will be based on experience or the team’s expertise, as well as prerequisite conditions for the issue of an exploration license (a comprehensive work plan and proof the bidder can finance half of the drilling costs). The council may also decide to divide the licensed area between different applicants. Exploration licenses are granted for a period of seven years, after which the license owners are required to begin drilling or forfeit the license.
In 1990 Russian Jew and a geologist Tovia Luskin said he received a blessing to drill for oil in Israel from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
